Sustainable Transport Planning for Israel and Palestine

The paper presents the results of a trilateral research project carried out jointly by German, Israeli, and Palestinian institutions. The overall objective of the project was to develop and adapt models and tools for resource-preserving transport planning in the West Bank and the adjacent areas. Because of its high dynamics and the particular political circumstances, broader socio-economic and political considerations needed to be included in the analysis of present conditions and the exploration of future developments in this area. Compared to other countries, transport planning in Palestine is much more linked to sensitive issues such as security, Israeli settlements, bypass roads and checkpoints, which cannot always be separated in a clean way. To evaluate different policy options for transport planning, a modeling system has been developed consisting of a GIS database, integrated transport and environmental models and network extensions tools. The paper presents the integrated database and the modeling system developed, describes the scenarios implemented and compares the outcomes of the model runs with respect to their environmental and social impacts.